The ups and downs of racing were starkly demonstrated by Nobuyuki Oyama on the final weekend of the season. The Japanese rider notched his first Korean winner at Busan on Friday before suffering a nasty fall in trackwork the following morning which looks set to rule him out for at least a month.

Nobuyuiki Oyama at Busan last Friday (Picture: Hiromi Kobayashi)

Oyama, who is married to former Busan jockey Hitomi Miyashita, joined the track at the beginning of December and despite coming close on several occasions, hadn’t made the breakthrough until Friday.

That changed in the last race of the day, the feature class 1 handicap when Oyama guided 4-year-old Heba to victory over a very competitive field that included well-known names such as Gamdonguibada and New York Blue.

It was a 7th career win for Heba (Peace Rules) and looked to be a win that could kick-start Oyama’s time at Busan. Unfortunately that is going to have to put on hold for now after the 46-year-old suffered a leg injury in trackwork the next day.

We wish him a speedy recovery.